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Lebanese Shiites mark religious day with blood
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MKH,

Or, as Canada has been called: *land of the two solitudes*.

This is an example of one of the fundamental differences between believers and non-believers. We are using the same vocabulary, but giving certiain words a different meaning.

For example, Reverend Byron says: "What I believe I know, but I do not have visual, tangible, measurable evidence to support that knowledge. I have it on the word of another. I know it because it has been disclosed or communicated to me by an authority I can rely on, an authority I trust."

Words and phrases such as "to know", "to believe", "certainty", "truth", "fact" - the believer uses these words with a different meaning than those more concerned with real logic. It is my opinion that they have corrupted their use of these words to help them support these beliefs. They do not seem to be aware they have done this.

Reverend Byron makes a fundamental mistake in logic here, Argumentum ad verecundiam - the appeal to authority. This in no way makes his beliefs fact, yet he proceeds through his life as if they do.

Believers and Unbelievers - separated by a common vocabulary.

Reverend Father,

You wrote:

"What I believe I know, but I do not have ... evidence to support that knowledge. I have it on the word of another."

You surely know that what you are basing your belief on is hearsay evidence, not admissible in any civil or criminal court in the land.

I would be more persuaded of the validity of your belief if you simply said that your heart told you it was true.

Thank you, Mr. Afghan for the Mary chapter fron the Quran. We Christians and Muslims do have significant beliefs in common, don't we.

One little question: how do you pronouce "Quran"? On which syllable is the accent?

Ann O.

1. Say: He is God,the One.
2. God is He on Whom all depend.
3. He begets not, nor was He begotten.
4. And there is none co-equal or comparable unto him.

Quran :112

16. Relate in the Book (the story of) Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place in the East.
17. She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent her our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.
18. She said: "I seek refuge from thee to ((Allah)) Most Gracious: (come not near) if thou dost fear Allah."
19. He said: "Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son.
20. She said: "How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?"
21. He said: "So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, 'that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us':It is a matter (so) decreed."
22. So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.
23. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!"
24. But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee;
25. "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.
26. "So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, 'I have vowed a fast to ((Allah)) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into not talk with any human being'"
27. At length she brought the (babe) to her people, carrying him (in her arms). They said: "O Mary! truly an amazing thing hast thou brought!
28. "O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!"
29. But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?"
30. He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah. He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet;
31. "And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live;
32. "(He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable;
33. "So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"!
34. Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute.
35. It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, "Be", and it is.
36. Verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: Him therefore serve ye: this is a Way that is straight.
Quran: chapter Mary

First, thanks to the Jesuits for interpreting Scripture in a loving and meaningful way. If other Catholics and Christians could learn from these great teachers, we'd definitely gain more respect among the faithful and those without faith.

Fr. Byron touches on what it means to have faith. It all revolves around belief. Those of us who are religious or spiritual have a certain set of beliefs that we do not necessarily "know" are true. Belief is taking that "leap of faith" based on scripture, tradition, conscience or a combination of the above. Those of us who are not religious or spiritual, have decided not to believe. I'd argue that no one truly "knows" that there is a God. Therefore, we're all agnositics. It's all semantics...

Regardless of one's set of beliefs or "non-beliefs," may peace and happiness be with everyone during this very special time of the year.

Candice, you need to be the subject of a nice inquisition to fully appreciate Jesuits. As lies cause people to develop even deeped faith, believe harder the truth causes one to develop deeper convictions, know better.

Father demonstrates the process of transmuting lies to truths. He no longer believes Jesus was the son of God, he knows it. Come to think about it that's what faith is all about, knowledge. That's why they call it faith and not belief.

Jesuits are supposed to be intellectuals. But being a Catholic and being an intellectual are mutually exclusive.

The definition of insanity is not having crazy ideas but rather never changing ones point of view. The Christian Church is the latter, always believing in Jesus the son of God. Never change it. As a kid I had neightmares about the eternal life, never die, always be there, always. The Church truly is a scary thing.

FR.BYRON tell us:

What I believe I know, but I do not have visual, tangible, measurable evidence to support that knowledge. I have it on the word of another. I know it because it has been disclosed or communicated to me by an authority I can rely on, an authority I trust. I know it on faith and I understand faith to be an unmerited gift for which I can only be grateful.

Hi, Father,

Yes, those are two ways of coming to know what is so. But I think there is another means: seeing that certain explanations make everything fit together in a coherent way, meaningful way. You might call this an aesthetic approach to reality, and I think it is. We can't *prove*, for instance, that Bach's hymns are beautiful, but we do know *that* they are beautiful. But they *show* their beauty, their aesthetic coherence. A dog can hear the hymns better than we can, but it doesn't know how the sounds *fit together* to make sense.

It seems to me that there is a sort of religious intuition (not the only kind) that allows us to see past the evidence of the senses to *see* how the things of the world hang together, and it makes us realize that a God is at least possible and even *probable*. It's the sort of intuition we have when we see that the world makes more sense than just a procession of one damn sensory thing after another or a mass of people struggling to be their own gods, to be their own fulfillment.

Contrary to what skeptics say, this is not a kind of irrationality, though it certainly isn't a proof in the strict sense. It is, it seems to me, an utterly rational sort of intuition, a kind of grasp which goes beyond the sort of knowledge dogs and cats and pigs and the other animals have. It's the sort of intuition, I suspect, that some agnostics have when they realize, as a friend of mine once put it, "There's something there". I guess you could say it has a sort of *aesthetic probability*. At least it opens our minds to the possibility of the Transcendent.

Ann O.

Nice try, Father Bill.

"Do you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God? If so, what exactly does that mean? If not, who was he?"

No. Anyone who does must prove two assertions:

1. That God exists.

2. That God procreates and somehow produces a son.

The concept is meaningless.

Jesus was a Jew, possibly a revolutionary, who did not confine himself to doctrine and dogma, had some influence among the populace of his time, opposed the status quo and was affective enough to warrant execution by the religious and political power elete of his time. . . Today, he might be a simple Palestinian who might influence the Israeli public to such an extent that both the Palestinian and Israeli power eletes would simply kill him because he posed too great a threat to their status.

Have a merry one!